On May 17 2016, ELN Director Ian Kearns delivered the key note speech at the Riga Dialogue: “Russia and West: Towards a Common Euro-Atlantic Security?”
Other panelists included:
- Sergey Markedonov (Associate Professor at Russian State University for the Humanities)
- Marcin Zaborowski (Executive Vice President of the Center for European Policy Analysis)
- Margarita Seselgyte (Associate professor, Studies Director, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University)
- Karsten Voigt (Former Coordinator of German-North American Cooperation at the Foreign Office of Germany)
The Riga Dialogue is an annual closed high-level expert roundtable that gathers top-ranking experts and policy-makers from the EU, US, Russia and other countries. It is organised by the Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA) alongside a group of partners including the European Leadership Network, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the German Marshall Fund’s Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation. The central themes of the 2016 event were the prospective development of NATO amidst the current challenges and crises; Europe’s response to global security threats; the future of the West-Russia relationship; and the responses to the challenges posed by the escalation of propaganda. The closed event is traditionally followed by an open discussion, in order to give an opportunity for the wider public to discuss security matters with renowned experts.
